Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Jul 01, 2016 Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers. Sørensen, Niels N.; Zahle, Frederik; Michelsen, Jess Publication date: 2014 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation (APA): Sørensen, N. N., Zahle, F., & Michelsen, J. (2014). Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers. [Sound/Visual production (digital)]., KGs. Lyngby, Denmark, 14/09/2014 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal? If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers EFMC 2014, Copenhagen 17-20 Sept 2014 Niels N. Sørensen 1, F. Zahle 1, J.A. Michelsen 2 1 Wind Energy Department DTU, Risø Campus, DK 2 Department of Fluid Mechanics, DTU
Introduction Large Scale Wind Turbines Increasing the rotor size may potentially lead to two obvious aerodynamic issues High Mach numbers in the tip region Might be harmful for performance Possible to avoid High Reynolds numbers Might be beneficial for performance Hard to avoid DTU 10 MW Reference Turbine 2 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Introduction Airfoil performance at high Reynolds Numbers We expect that increasing the Reynolds Number will: Decrease the viscous effects due to the thinning of the boundary layer Promote earlier transition due to increased Reynolds number Quantification of the effects can be done by: Measurements Tunnel measurements are difficult to obtain at high Re and low Mach Openly available data are sparse Computations Model performance in this range is unknown 3 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Introduction Laminar turbulent transition The transition process depend on many parameters Reynolds Number Free stream turbulence level Laminar separation bubbles Cross flow Surface roughness Mass injection Typically approaches for transition modeling e n method (Orr-Sommerfeld eqn.) Empirical correlations Michel Mayle Abu-Ghannam and Shaw Suzen 4 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Approach The γ Re θ Correlation based transition model The model is based on comparing the local Momentum Thickness Reynolds number with a critical value from empirical expressions Re θ = Re θt In the present form the model handles natural transition, by-pass transition, and separation induced transition The model is based on transport equations, and can easily be implemented in general purpose flow solvers 5 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Approach E n model for natural transition The E n method is based on analyzing the behavior of small disturbances in the boundary layer ψ(y) = φ(y) exp[i(αx ωt)] The disturbances are inserted in the Navier-Stokes equations, and linearized to give the Orr-Sommerfeld equation (U c )(φ α 2 φ) (u ) φ = i αre θ (φ 2α 2 φ +α 4 φ) The model is heavily related to BL physics, and not straight forward to implement in general purpose flow solvers. In our inhouse code the EllipSys, the E n model can be used together with a bypass and a bubble criteria. 6 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Approach Flow Solver and test cases We use the EllipSys2D incompressible solver. Diffusive terms by second order accurate central differences. Convective terms by QUICK. Steady state computations. Turbulence modeling by the k ω SST model Transitional computations using γ Re θt transition model and E n model We will analyze a series of airfoils at Reynolds numbers [3-40] million 7 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, NACA63-018 Computational setup Airfoil computations for Re=[3, 9, 20] million Using two transition models, E n and γ Re θ Assuming natural transition (N=9) Mesh resolution 384 256 8 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, NACA63-018 Performance for varying Re 0.008 0.0075 0.007 Measured Cor. method E n method NACA63-018 C d (min) 0.0065 0.006 0.0055 0.005 0.0045 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Re*10-6 The correlation based model do not respond correctly to varying Re! 9 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Computational set-up Airfoil computations for Re=[3, 15] million Using three transition models, E n, E n + BP and γ Re θ All assuming natural transition (N=9) Mesh resolution 384 256 10 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Lift, Natural Transition 1.5 DU00-W-212, RE=3E6, N=9 1 0.5 Cl 0-0.5 E n E n +BP -1 Gamma-Theta -10-5 0 5 10 Angle of Attack [deg] 11 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Lift, Natural Transition 1.5 DU00-W-212, RE=15E6, N=9 1 0.5 Cl 0-0.5 E n E n +BP -1 Gamma-Theta -10-5 0 5 10 Angle of Attack [deg] 11 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Drag, Natural Transition 0.018 0.016 DU00-W-212, RE=3E6, N=9 E n E n +BP Gamma-Theta 0.014 Cd 0.012 0.01 0.008 0.006-10 -5 0 5 10 Angle of Attack [deg] 12 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Drag, Natural Transition Cd 0.014 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.01 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.006 DU00-W-212, RE=15E6, N=9 E n E n +BP Gamma-Theta 0.005-10 -5 0 5 10 Angle of Attack [deg] 12 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Transition Location, Natural Transition X/C 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 DU00-W-212, RE=3E6, N=9 0-20 -15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 Angle of Attack [deg] E n E n +BP Gamma-Theta 13 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, DU00-W-212 Transition Location, Natural Transition X/C 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 DU00-W-212, RE=15E6, N=9 0-20 -15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 Angle of Attack [deg] E n E n +BP Gamma-Theta 13 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, NACA64 2 A015 Computational setup Airfoil computations for Re=[10:40] million, AOA=0 deg. Using two transition models, E n and γ Re θ Mesh resolution 384 256 14 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Test Case, NACA64 2 A015 Performance at high Re Transition Location X/C 0.5 0.45 0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 1e+07 2e+07 3e+07 4e+07 5e+07 6e+07 Reynolds Number Measured EN, N=10 EN, N=11 EN, N=12 Gamma-Theta 15 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Explanation Behavior of the correlation based model The following behavior is observed The Reynolds number is varied through the viscosity The pressure distribution stays nearly constant Turbulent quantities are unchanged away from the airfoil The critical Reynolds number predicted by the γ Re θ model stays constant 3000 2500 2000 NACA64(2)A015 RE=10e6 RE=20e6 RE=30e6 RE=40e6 RE=50e6 Re c rit=940 RE theta t 1500 1000 500 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 16 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen x/choord Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers
Conclusion Conclusion and outlook Wind turbine rotors will face high Re with increasing size Lift is weakly dependent on the transition location in normal operation even at high Re The available data show that the γ Re θ model over-predict drag at high Re The present computations indicate that the γ Re θ model do not react correctly to changes in Re There is very little data available for comparison The present study suggest to use the E n model to correctly capture effects of the Re The present work was supported by the InnWind, AVATAR and COMFLOW projects. 17 of 17 Niels N. Sørensen, F. Zahle, J.A. Michelsen Prediction of airfoil performance at high Reynolds numbers